[SCOTTISH COMMUNITY IN AUSTRALIA] Letter copybook of the Gaelic Society of New South Wales (1875-77). by GAELIC SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

[Sydney : Gaelic Society of New South Wales, 3 Hunter Street, 1875-77]. Letter copybook. Quarto (270 x 220 mm), half calf over marbled papered boards (boards rubbed, leather a little worn); spine stamped in gilt 'Letter Book'; alphabetical tab dividers; contains numerous copies on onion-skin paper of outgoing local and overseas correspondence (some written in Scots Gaelic), most signed by Hon. Secretary John Macdonald; complete and well preserved. Around the time of the demise of the St. Andrew's Society of New South Wales, which had become defunct by the end of 1875, two other organisations dedicated to the fostering of Scottish culture in the colony were established in Sydney. One was the Caledonian Society of New South Wales; the other was the Gaelic Society of New South Wales. Both were only relatively short-lived, as in June 1878 they would amalgamate to form the Highland Society of New South Wales, a much more ambitious charitable and cultural organisation with politician Sir John Hay as its first president.